With newly crowned champion Abdulaziz Binladen and Mahmoud Tannir absent, Almuyni qualified in pole position by over two seconds over the next best and then went on to win Race 1 by 22 seconds beating Yamaha mounted trio of Kris Murphy in second, Leigh Young in third and Mike Andrews fourth. Veteran Alan Boyter was fifth on his Triumph.

Almuyni then went on to win Race 2 by 14 seconds with Boyter bouncing back to take second place, ahead of Young in third, Murphy fourth and Mike Andrews rounding out the top five on his Yamaha.

The result means Almuyni finishes runner-up to compatriot Binladen in this season’s edition of the UAE Sportbike Championship, while Young did enough to wrap up the prestigious Rookie Cup title.

Emirati driver Saeed Bintouq and Danish teenager Cato Poulsen shared a win apiece in the two Formula Gulf 1000 races on the day.

Poulsen qualified on pole but a first lap incident sidelined him for the first race, whereupon Bintouq seized the opportunity to claim victory by half a second from Dubai schoolboy Giulio Peroni who was second and Omar Gazzaz in third.

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Al Ali completes dominant victory in Al Ain

Saeed Al Ali wrapped up double points and third place overall at Al Ain.

Double points at the Al Ain International circuit gave the 16-year-old Daman Speed Academy driver a superb third-place finish overall in the DD2 category. And the talented teenager put his podium finish all down to hard work.

“My true ambition was to make first place at the final championship race, but I knew that the mission would not be easy due to the fierce competition posed by some more experienced drivers,” said Al Ali. “But I was able to overcome them by means of my persistence and intensive preparations.”

Al Ali’s overall placing even came as a surprise with him not at first realising he had done enough to gatecrash the podium.

Al Ali was able to achieve three podium positions in his first season, with them coming in Oman, at the Dubai Kartdrome and at Al Ain.

Elsewhere, Hamda Al Qubaisi claimed third position in the Al Ain Raceway Challenge Trophy of the Mini Max category, while her elder sister Amna Al Qubaisi snatched second in the Junior Max category.

“Our sons and daughters were up to the challenge, manifesting confidence and great performance, which enabled them to reap those trophies. I believe we have succeeded at Daman Speed Academy in
developing the Emirati skills, and we shall continue on this path until we reach together the pinnacle of motorsport.”

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Tannir: Aiming to finish UAE Sportbike championship on a high

This season has been steady so far with no major hick-ups until round five of the UAE championship. I was looking forward to this round on the national circuit at Dubai Autodrome since it doesn’t have too many straits.

It all went well on Thursday in the free practice sessions as the track was relatively dry, however, Friday morning didn’t give us the best grip as some showers, mixed with dusty conditions, affected the track a lot. Qualifying was looking good for a front row start, but I decided to stay one more lap and try to get a pole position to help with our race start.

Unfortunately due to the slippery conditions I missed my braking marker and ran outside the track. I managed to get it back but the rear tire slipped and caught me out on the dusty curbs, flipped the bike and lost the rear! I injured my right shin and calf in the process as my foot got stuck in the rear set. To add to the drama, the bike regained traction and cruised straight into the wall which resulted in heavy damage to the front forks, radiator and some other parts.

After clearance from the medical center, I was still considering racing for the points but unfortunately we couldn’t get the bike ready with the amount of damage. So this was a bad weekend for the team, but we will still think positively and look forward to the final round on the 15th. My injury now is almost back to 100% after some rehabilitation and physio so it shouldn’t be any issue.

I would also like to thank all my sponsors for helping out this season, even though it has been tough financially and we were struggling a bit with lack of funds. A special thank you goes to my Lebanese sponsors LIFCO group and my good friend Shadi who went that little extra in supporting me recently.

We couldn’t score any points from round five due to the crash so I’m currently sitting third in the championship. So far we have been finishing on the podium in every race, but the championship title is impossible at the moment. However, I’m really looking forward to doing my best in the final round and finishing the season on a high! Roll on the final round.